China treated its people with greater respect for human rights during the SARS outbreak than Toronto, according to research by a York University professor. It's a conclusion that Toronto Public Health says is not supported by evidence.
Lesley Jacobs, professor of law and society at York University, said in an interview that Toronto Public Health "responded in an extremely Draconian way."
Between 20,000 and 30,000 people were quarantined in Toronto, compared to 1,200 people in Hong Kong, he said.
In addition, his report concluded that Hong Kong provided greater care for its health workers by giving them accommodations during the SARS crisis in 2003.
Toronto health care workers could travel only between work and home, Prof. Jacobs reported.
Dr. Barbara Yaffe, director of communicable disease control and the city's associate medical officer of health, said yesterday that health workers in Toronto were not offered places to stay because it was thought that allowing them to return home, even if it meant wearing respiratory masks, would at least allow them to spend time with their families.
Dr. Yaffe said that Toronto issued only 27 mandatory quarantine orders, the rest were largely voluntary and most people complied without complaint.
"We agonized over [whether to quarantine people]" she said. "We always take human rights into consideration. . . . We did quarantine people, but people understood it was necessary."
Prof. Jacobs disagreed, saying that regard for human rights had little impact in shaping public health policy.
The Chinese provided furnished flats stocked with food, TV service, mobile phones and even babysitting services for quarantined health care workers, Prof. Jacobs said.
"Here there was virtually none of that," he said. "The Ontario Human Rights Commission doesn't have a single SARS-related complaint on record," he said, adding that rather than showing a lack of discrimination, this proved the OHRC had no role in SARS policy making.
After analyzing the after-effects of SARS Dr. Yaffe said, that understanding how the disease is spread, Toronto Public Health would now only suggest quarantining people who had come in close contact with an infected individual.